Play Well

This article was posted on Monday, 19th March 2012 by John Rainsford

An example of brilliant design- the Lego brick. The patents below are dated 1961, but the design was finalised in 1958 (also on patent)- since then, all Lego pieces conform to these dimensions. Lego pieces from 1958 can be used with Lego produced today. The genius of the design can be seen both in the success of the product and the fact that the fundamental details of the design are still used today.

Tangentially, I'm aware that people from the US tend to say 'Legos' as in 'I have ten Legos', 'can I play with your Legos' etcetera. This is wrong, very wrong. You can have 'Lego sets', 'Lego bricks', 'Lego pieces' and 'Lego Minifigures' but not Legos. Sort it out.

As seen on Swiss-Miss.com

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Pencils to Pixels

This article was posted on Wednesday, 25th January 2012 by John Rainsford

When I was in my teens, I was an avid comic book reader, specifically the British 2000ad. It always seemed darker than it's American cousins. Around the mid-to-late-1990s, there was a surge in computer-aided comic art. Artists were not just using computers to colour their art, they were using Photoshop, Poser, Bryce and Color It (remember those latter apps?) to apply textures and arrange artwork. One such artist, Mark Harrison, was a sort of pioneer in the movement, he created the artwork for Durham Red and co-created Glimmer Rats and used a Macintosh heavily, to create his art.

MacFormat, my Mac magazine of choice at the time, ran a series about comic art and Macs, and part of this was two tutorial movies created by Mark Harrison.

I found these movies so inspiring that I felt I simply must become a comic book artist, using these techniques. So taken by these movies that I have kept them safe since about 1999, moving them from computer to computer (about eight different machines and at least five different storage mediums, I reckon) and it was only today, when I was trying to explain to my nephew how to create realistic gore using Photoshop (long story) that I decided to post them to YouTube.

I did a search and they don't seem to be online already. I also did a search for contact details for Mark Harrison, to ask permission to upload them. I didn't find any, so he'll have to accept my apologies for going ahead anyway. I've embedded the two parts below.

Sadly, shortly after trying, I realised that this wasn't the path for me- I just didn't have the artistic ability. What was becoming a stronger influence on me though, was the design in 2000ad- especially the typefaces, which were created by a guy called Rian Hughes, who was a big influence on me and is still one of my favourite designers today.

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Auto-updating Dates with Timezones and PHP

This article was posted on Tuesday, 3rd January 2012 by John Rainsford

Happy New Year! The last few days I've seen a number of articles written, regarding the PHP date() function, which can be used to ensure the copyright date on the footer of your website (assuming you have a website written in PHP) is always the current year. I'm sure you'll agree that there is nothing worse than seeing 'Copyright © 2009 SomeCompany.com' when it's the sparkly year of 2012.

Currently

If you are unaware of the date() function, it basically allows you to output the current date on your PHP website. For example, if you wanted to display todays date, you could use this:

<?php echo date('l, jS F Y'); ?>

This will output Tuesday, 3rd January 2012. Due to my CMS, I can't inject PHP into this content, so please take my word for it. The l, j, S, F, Y all refer to different date aspects- in this case, l is the day of the month, j is the date, S is the ordinal suffix, F is the full name of the month and Y is the four digit year. You're not limited to just these elements, you can mix it up. I've included some links at the bottom for more information.

Anyway, in relation to updating your copyright date, to produce the current year you could simply stick in <?php echo date('Y'); ?> in the appropriate place. Depending on how long the site is up, you could do something like:

<p>Contents &copy; 2009 - <?php echo date('Y'); ?> SomeCompany.com</p>

This will output 'Contents © 2009 - 2012 SomeCompany.com'. However, there is one issue that may cause you hassle, which I have not seen addressed in any of the articles I have read.

The Issue

Sometimes, the servers that host your website do not have a timezone set. If this is the case, PHP throws an error which can either stop the website from loading correctly, or just not display the date- depending on the server settings. I do not have this problem with my preferred hosting company, Blacknight, as they have their timezones set at the php.ini document on the server.

I do, however, have this problem on my local hosting environment- I haven't set the timezone on my local development machine. It's a subtle reminder to always declare the timezone on the websites I'm working on- I like my sites to be self contained, able to be moved from hosting company to hosting company, with minimum hassle, should the need arise.

Declaring timezones

Aside from avoiding potential errors popping up, declaring a timezone is essential if you are doing delicate date/time related work. For instance, I have on the Pixelcode contact page a script that displays the current local time and shows whether I am open or closed for business. This would be useless if the timezone was set to New York or California. As it happens, my host is in the same timezone as me, but why take the risk when the solution is so simple?

The solution

I use the following, before any date function is used:

ini_set('date.timezone', 'Europe/Dublin');

So, in full, to output the current year (or any day and date):

<?php ini_set('date.timezone', 'Europe/Dublin'); echo date('Y'); ?>

I have linked to the full timezone list below. I personally use the above method in the footers of websites I make, or else I include it in the bootstrap files of the site, declaring it once to save a bit of time.

Resources and Links

PHP Solutions - David Power. I would be lost and useless without this book, now in it's second edition. Highly recommended.

php.net Full date() function format characters

php.net Timezones

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Copybooks renamed as Sktchbks

This article was posted on Tuesday, 20th December 2011 by John Rainsford

A few weeks ago, I had to rename the sketchbooks that I’ve been producing and selling for the last year. They were called ‘Copybooks’ but that doesn’t translate well overseas (ie copybooks in Ireland are blank/lined/graph books, similar to my sketchbooks- this is not necessarily the case elsewhere).

After much going back and forward with lots of different ideas, I just couldn’t come up with something that worked. I wanted something that described what it was, a sketchbook, and something that I could use as a name, ie register a domain with it.

Finally, as I was getting close to reverting back to ‘copybooks’, as I was doodling different names and variations, I noticed that if I removed the ‘e’ in sketch, it still read as ‘sketch’.
I started emailing around the name ‘sktchbooks’ and full credit to @burkie for suggesting I removed the double-o in ‘books’. As soon as I saw that, I knew that this was what I was looking for: Sktchbks.

My attitude towards the sketchbooks was always simplicity, strip them back to the bare essentials. Stripping vowels out of the name tied in nicely with this. I registered the domain and stuck up a holding page until I could do a major branding and design exercise in the new year.

Sidenote- I registered a .com but what made me really laugh, was the possibility of registering a .cm, completely stripping vowels out of the name, so sktchbks.cm. I checked out my local domain and hosting peeps, Blacknight, and unfortunately a .cm domain is eighty euros per year, too expensive for a confusing joke, purely for my amusement. Maybe some other time.

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Support Web Standards 2011

This article was posted on Tuesday, 6th December 2011 by John Rainsford

Last Wednesday, November 30th (aka Blue Beanie Day) myself and Jeffrey Zeldman launched a new incarnation of Support Web Standards, a website that houses both a growing list of web standards resources and a shop to buy some products 'to show your love and support for web standards'.

I have lots to say on the matter, but due to the approaching Christmas shipping deadlines, I am spending all my time packing and shipping envelopes of products around the world. It's hard work, but I actually enjoy doing it.

I'll go into more detail with the new product design as soon as I get a free minute, but I'd like to share with you our new promo video. It has been something I wanted to do since last year's launch and I finally got around to doing it. Check it out below.

I filmed the footage on my iPhone 4S, but it still came out at a decent quality. There are lots of little things I'd love to change but I just filmed and cut it really fast, ignoring all spots and quirks with the footage (I'll share my 'unique' iPhone/Tripod setup at some other time).

The soundtrack is courtesy of my younger brother, the inimitable, YouTube drumming sensation, Jimmy Rainsford. I filmed the footage Sunday night, cut it together Sunday and Monday, sent the rough cut to Jimmy after lunch on Monday and he had drums, guitar and bass back to me by late Monday night. I only asked for a drum track! That kid has mad skillz and I'm so appreciative of his work.

I have another post, lined up for when I get a moment to finish and publish it. Thanks again to Jimmy, and also to Jeffrey and finally, thanks to Blacknight who have sponsored the hosting for the site again.

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